First printed Georgian Books now at the Library of Congress

Nearly four centuries ago, a Georgian cleric and diplomat traveled to Rome on a mission to save his kingdom. The mission failed, but what he left behind made history.

In 1629, at the printing press of Propaganda Fide — the Catholic Church’s missionary printing house in Rome — two books came off the press: a Georgian alphabet with prayers, and a Georgian-Italian dictionary.

They were the first Georgian-language texts ever set in movable type. They were printed some 80 years before Georgia had a printing press of its own.
Now, the books that marked that moment are held at the Library of Congress, alongside thousands of Georgian books, periodicals, maps, archival documents, photographs, and other materials.

For Washington’s Georgian diaspora, the collection carries a more personal meaning. The community traces its roots to exiles who fled after the Soviet occupation of Georgia’s first democratic republic in 1921 and the failed uprising of 1924 — building institutions to preserve their history far from home. The Georgian Association in the USA, founded in New York in 1932 by those exiles, continues that effort through its “Making of Modern Georgia” series, organizing visits and events at the Library.